The word "hydrocarbons" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you are talking about chemical compounds made of hydrogen and carbon. For example: "Oil and natural gas are composed mainly of hydrocarbons."
"If they want to lead they'll pledge to stop looking for new hydrocarbons.
Their letter echoes the views of Van Beurden, who recently told the Guardian that hydrocarbons would be needed for "years to come".
Shell has a major commitment to the country, not least through its liquefied natural gas (LNG) scheme at Sakhalin in eastern Russia but other companies have recently signed deals to explore for shale in Siberia and search for hydrocarbons in the Arctic.
China's cities have now reached a similar stage, minus the street protests, and local and national governments are increasingly following American and European regulators in imposing limits on emissions by new cars of nitrogen oxides (NOX), hydrocarbons and fine soot particles.
Any hydrocarbons in the crater would certainly have been vaporised.
Five years ago, when asked about the prospects for hydrogen, he immediately replied: "Hydrocarbons will remain the fuel of choice for the 21st century".
The general view of hydrocarbons such as oil and gas is one of dwindling reserves.
This is the use of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), in which, in the case of oil or gas, water is injected into rocks whose hydrocarbons are too tightly bound to the rocky matrix to gush to the surface of their own accord.
For it would mean that hydrocarbons are vastly more abundant on Earth than anyone has hitherto believed, and that if you drill deep enough, you should be able to find them almost anywhere.
Two different catalysts are required: one to split water into hydrogen and oxygen; another to convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons.
At the very least, their dispute threatens to impede the laying of pipelines, and hence the export of the Caspian's hydrocarbons.
